Horseman by Christina Henry

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Titan Books in exchange for an honest review.

Christina Henry is one of my favourite authors without a doubt. I have enjoyed her recent journeys into entirely original work but a part of me has sorely missed her ability to adapt traditional tales with that fantastic horror spin and tone. Horseman satisfied all of those cravings and more.

Horseman is the story of Ben, a trans teenager from the town of Sleepy Hollow. The headless horseman legends have always plagued his town but things become a bit too real when the corpse of a child is found with his hands and head missing. Ben decides to investigate but is held back by his grandma and grandfather, the former of which thinks it is unladylike to traipse around the woods and the latter of which seems to have secrets of his own.

This is a largely original horror story which only uses elements of the Sleepy Hollow mythos, often to great effect. Ben was a fantastic main character and I felt the trans identity stuff fit well with the themes of the novel (take this with a pinch of salt as I am not trans). Parts of this book felt a little slow or like not a huge ton was happening, but the creepy atmosphere was always there and I was never entirely sure what was going on in a good way. The characters as always are incredibly strong and they really helped add to the compelling nature of the book.

Overall, this is a solid effort from Henry and one I definitely recommend checking out, especially around the spooky autumn season. It's an interesting story with plenty of creepy elements and a strong main character, with added trans rep as a bonus. It's not my favourite book by Henry but it's a fantastic horror book and well worth the read.

Overall Rating:

.5

Trigger warnings clarity: Lots of gore/graphic descriptions of dead bodies. Transphobia comes from characters aimed at the main character, not from the nature of the book itself. There is attempted rape